PETALUMA, Calif. — On misty hillsides in Sonoma County, California, cows graze under the shade of oak trees, and lambs poke their snouts through white picket fences. The specialty markets and farm-to-table restaurants that abound celebrate the agricultural riches of a region that locals call “America’s Provence”: fresh eggs and locally produced pepper jack, not to mention world-class chardonnay.
The roughly 3,000 farms in the Northern California county have long had a reputation for being organic and humane, in a region where liberal values predominate.
But that has not been enough to spare them from a bitter feud with some of the country’s most extreme animal welfare activists…